System for communication routing

ABSTRACT

A system, method, apparatus, means, and computer program code is provided wherein an electronic communication is received. A communication routing matrix is accessed, from a relational database platform, to select a service representative for the received communication. It may then be arranged for the received communication to be routed in accordance with the selected service representative.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/317,543 filed on Jun. 27, 2014 entitled “System and Method forTelephone Call Routing Using a Relational Routing Matrix” which was acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/857,470 filed onApr. 5, 2013 entitled “System and Method for Telephone Call RoutingUsing a Relational Routing Matrix” which was based on and claimedbenefit of and priority to U.S. Patent Application No. 61/736,131 filedon Dec. 12, 2012 and entitled “System and Method for DynamicConfiguration and Algorithms to Match Customers with SkilledRepresentatives,” the contents of which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

An enterprise may receive telephone calls from customers for variousreasons. For example, an insurance company might receive telephone callsfrom customers regarding purchases of new insurance policies, billingquestions, and/or inquiries about insurance claims. Moreover, anenterprise may have service representatives to answer telephone callsand help customers. Note that different service representatives may havedifferent skills and/or other features. For example, one servicerepresentative might specialize in helping customers purchase newinsurance policies while another service representative specializes inhelping answering customer billing questions. Thus, a received telephonecall may need to be eventually routed to an appropriate customer servicerepresentative.

According to one known approach, an enterprise may use differenttelephone numbers to determine which service representative will answera customer's telephone call. In this case, however, a customer might notbe aware of the appropriate telephone number and/or misunderstand thenature of his or her question. As another approach, a servicerepresentative can talk to a customer and manually re-route a telephonecall to another, more appropriate, service representative as needed.This approach, however, can be time consuming task, especially whenthere are a substantial number of telephone calls and/or a relativelylarge number of potential customer service representatives. For example,a telephone call center might potentially receive millions of telephonecalls each year. It would therefore be desirable to provide systems andmethods to facilitate the routing of telephone calls from customers inan automated, efficient, scalable, and accurate manner. Moreover, it maybe desirable to provide a simple interface that lets an end userimplement, adjust, and/or modify business rules and/or combinations ofbusiness rules in connection with telephone call routing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to some embodiments, systems, methods, apparatus, computerprogram code and means may provide a tool to facilitate the routing oftelephone calls. In some embodiments, a telephone call is received. Atelephone call routing matrix is accessed, from a relational databaseplatform, to select a service representative for the received telephonecall. It may then be arranged for the received telephone call to berouted in accordance with the selected service representative.

Some embodiments provide: means for receiving a telephone call at acommunications server; means for attempting to match information aboutthe telephone call with at least one override flag to select a servicerepresentative terminal; if the information about the telephone calldoes not match the at least one override flag, means for accessing atelephone call routing matrix stored on a relational database platformto attempt to select a service representative terminal for the receivedtelephone call; if a service representative terminal is not selectedbased on the telephone call routing matrix, means for selecting aservice representative terminal in accordance with a default routingrule; and means for routing the received telephone to the selectedservice representative terminal.

A technical effect of some embodiments of the invention is an improvedand computerized method to route telephone calls. With these and otheradvantages and features that will become hereinafter apparent, a morecomplete understanding of the nature of the invention can be obtained byreferring to the following detailed description and to the drawingsappended hereto.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is block diagram overview of a system according to someembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a more detailed system according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates a method that might be performed in accordance withsome embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates a routing matrix display according to someembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a matrix header display according to some embodimentsof the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a matrix hierarchy display according to someembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates a telephone call simulation display according to someembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates a simulation result display according to someembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flag manager display according to some embodimentsof the present invention.

FIG. 10 illustrates a configuration display according to someembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 11 illustrates a caller intent based display according to someembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is block diagram of a communications server or platformaccording to some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a tabular portion of a relational database routing matrixdatabase according to some embodiments.

FIG. 14 illustrates elements of a relational data model in accordancewith some embodiments described herein.

FIG. 15 illustrates a handheld tablet display in accordance with someembodiments described herein.

DESCRIPTION

An enterprise, such as an insurance company, may receive telephone callsfrom customers for various reasons (e.g., to purchase new policies or toask questions about existing policies). Moreover, an enterprise may havecustomer service representatives to answer telephone calls and helpcustomers, and different service representatives may have differentskills and/or other features. For example, one service representativemight speak Spanish while another service representative speaks English.Thus, a received telephone call may need to be eventually routed to anappropriate customer service representative. It may therefore bedesirable to provide systems and methods to route incoming customertelephone calls in an automated, efficient, and accurate manner. FIG. 1is block diagram of a system 100 according to some embodiments of thepresent invention. In particular, the system 100 includes acommunications server 150 that receives incoming telephone calls fromcustomer via various telephone numbers. The communications server 150might be, for example, associated with a Personal Computers (PC), laptopcomputer, an enterprise server, a server farm, and/or a database orsimilar storage devices. The communications server 150 may, according tosome embodiments, be associated with a business organization or aninsurance provider.

The incoming telephone calls may be received, for example, via acommunication network, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network(“PSTN”). Note that any embodiments described herein may also beassociated with Internet telephony (referred to herein generally as“VoIP”). According to some embodiments, VoIP communications areimplemented using session protocols such as those defined in the“Session Initiation Protocol” (or “SIP”) which is defined in RFC-3261,“SIP: Session Initiation Protocol” which is hereby incorporated byreference for all purposes. As used herein, a “IP PBX” or “SIP Server”may refer to a type of PBX that connects to one or more client stations(or telephone handsets) on the private side by an IP network and to anInternet Telephone Service Provider (“ITSP”) on the public side via anIP network (e.g., such as the Internet).

As used herein, devices, including those associated with thecommunications server 150 and any other device described herein, mayexchange information via any communication network which may be one ormore of a telephone network, a Local Area Network (“LAN”), aMetropolitan Area Network (“MAN”), a Wide Area Network (“WAN”), aproprietary network, a Public Switched Telephone Network (“PSTN”), aWireless Application Protocol (“WAP”) network, a Bluetooth network, awireless LAN network, and/or an Internet Protocol (“IP”) network such asthe Internet, an intranet, or an extranet. Note that any devicesdescribed herein may communicate via one or more such communicationnetworks.

According to some embodiments, an “automated” communications server 150may access a relational routing matrix 140 to facilitate the selectionof an appropriate service representative platform 160 for each incomingtelephone call. The service representative platforms 160 may comprise,for example, telephones or workstations operated by customer servicerepresentatives. As used herein, the term “automated” may refer to, forexample, actions that can be performed with little or no humanintervention.

The communications server 150 may store information into and/or retrieveinformation from the relational routing matrix database 140. Therelational routing matrix 140 might be associated with, for example,business logic and rules to help route incoming telephone calls toservice representative platforms 160. The relational routing matrix 140may be locally stored or reside remote from the communications server150. The term “relational” may refer to, for example, a collection ofdata items organized as a set of formally described tables from whichdata can be accessed. Moreover, a Relational Database Management System(“RDBMS”) may be used in connection with database tables such that eachtable has a different primary key. According to some embodiments, agraphical interface for end user 130 may provide an ability to accessand/or modify the relational routing matrix 140 via the communicationsserver 150. The graphical interface for end user 130 might, for example,let an administrator define mapping rules, override flags, and/ordefaulting routings between various incoming telephone calls and servicerepresentative platforms 160.

Although a single communications server 150 is shown in FIG. 1, anynumber of such devices may be included. Moreover, various devicesdescribed herein might be combined according to embodiments of thepresent invention. For example, in some embodiments, the claimcommunications server 150 and relational routing matrix 140 might beco-located and/or may comprise a single apparatus.

According to some embodiments, a business rules solution may beimplemented in accordance with a relational RDBMS structure. Forexample, FIG. 2 illustrates a more detailed system 200 according to someembodiments that may provide a scalable model for telephone callcontrol. The system 200 may support an enterprise as new lines ofbusinesses are added or merged without requiring custom programming. Asbefore, a communications server 250 may be provided to receive incomingtelephone calls. According to this embodiment, an Interactive VoiceResponse or Recognition (IVR) platform 230 may be provided to receiveinformation from the customer (e.g., by asking the customer to say orpress “1” if they prefer to communicate in Spanish). Information fromthe IVR platform 230 may then be used along with information in arelational routing matrix 240 to determine an appropriate servicerepresentative platform 260 for the call. Note that difference servicerepresentative platforms 260 may be associated with a single customerqueue or multiple customer queues. Moreover, according to any embodimentdescribed herein, a customer's placement or priority within a queuemight be determined along with the appropriate customer servicerepresentative.

According the embodiment of FIG. 2, the communications server 250executes a skill matrix flag evaluation and configuration process 252.In particular, if any matching override flags are detected at 254, acall might be immediately routed to a service representative platform(e.g., it might be determined that the customer is very important andshould be handled by a VIP customer service representative). Theoverride flags may, for example, “override” the normal business logicapplied to incoming telephone calls via the routing matrix. If nooverride flags were matched at 254, an array of matching matrix flagsmay be evaluated at 256. If the array of matching matrix flags indicateswhere a telephone call should be routed, the appropriate servicerepresentative platform 260 may be selected. If the array of matchingmatrix flags does not indicate where a telephone call should be routed,an appropriate service representative platform 260 may be selected basedon default routing rules at 258.

In this way, the system 200 may be streamlined by updates to therelational routing matrix 240 when changes are made. Moreover, acustomer may be mapped to a customer service representative platform 260using business rules and information gathered from the caller along(along with, in some cases, data matches returned from one or moredatabases). For example, FIG. 3 illustrates a method that might beperformed by some or all of the elements of the systems 100, 200described with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2 according to some embodiments ofthe present invention. The flow charts described herein do not imply afixed order to the steps, and embodiments of the present invention maybe practiced in any order that is practicable. Note that any of themethods described herein may be performed by hardware, software, or anycombination of these approaches. For example, a computer-readablestorage medium may store thereon instructions that when executed by amachine result in performance according to any of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

At S310, a telephone call may be received from a customer. For example,a customer might call one of a number of different toll free or “1-800”numbers established by an enterprise. At S320, supplemental informationabout the customer associated may be determined. For example, an IVRsystem, a customer response, and/or pre-stored customer information. Forexample, a customer might enter a customer number, an insurance policyidentifier, or a claim identifier. Using that information, acommunications server might access a database and set or more overrideor priority flags associated with the telephone call. Such a databasemight be associated with, for example, a client database, a third partyadministrator, or a prior insurance provider. The supplementalinformation might, according to some embodiments, include a customeridentifier, an insurance claim identifier, an insurance policyidentifier, an insurance product identifier, and/or geographicinformation (e.g., an indication that a customer or insurance policy isassociated with California).

At S330, information about the telephone call may be matched with atleast one override flag. The override flag might, for example, indicatethat the customer is very important and should always be handled by aparticular customer service representative. At S340, a telephone callrouting matrix may be accessed to select a service representative forthe received telephone call. The routing matrix might be stored, forexample, at a relational database platform. Note that the selection of aservice representative might be based at least in part on Dialed NumberInformation Service data (“DNIS”) (e.g., which number the customerdialed), a business rule, insurance product information, a languagepreference, queue information, and/or a service representative skill. Insome cases, the selection may comprise selecting the servicerepresentative in accordance with a default routing rule (e.g., when noapplicable business rule is found).

At S350, it may be arranged for the received telephone call to be routedin accordance with the selected service representative. For example, thetelephone call might be automatically routed to an insurance claimshandler.

According to some embodiments, a system operator or administrator mayinteract with a communications server via a Graphical User Interface(“GUI”) to adjust a telephone call routing matrix stored on a relationaldatabase platform. For example, FIG. 4 illustrates a routing matrixdisplay 400 according to some embodiments of the present invention. Thedisplay 400 may allow a user to select a “tenant” icon 402 to define aline-of-business associated with the matrix (e.g., automobile insurance,homeowner's insurance, etc.). For each tenant, a tenant definition dataentry portion 404 may let the user align available DNIS information tothat tenant. For example, 50 incoming 1-800 numbers might be selected asbeing associated with that particular tenant (out of 1,000 availablenumbers).

A user may further define matrix information for each DNIS that isselected. For example, FIG. 5 illustrates a matrix header display 500according to some embodiments of the present invention. The display 500may let a user select a particular DNIS and provide a matrix header dataentry portion 504 for that DNIS. The matrix header data entry portion504 might, for example, let a user provide a default route, overridematrix, and priority information. Once created, the header may appear ina header data portion 506 of the display 500.

A user may further define a hierarchy to be associated with a telephonecall routing matrix. For example, FIG. 6 illustrates a matrix hierarchydisplay 600 according to some embodiments of the present invention. Inparticular, the display 600 includes a hierarchy data entry portion 602where a user can select an appropriate template, flag and flagconditions along with a destination and priority to be applied when theconditions are met. For example, the hierarch data entry portion 602might define a particular destination for incoming calls that have a“Language” flag equal to “Spanish.” The display 600 may also let a userexport information about the telephone call routing matrix, such as viaa spreadsheet application icon 604 or a Comma Separated Value (“CSV”)icon 606. The displays described herein, including the matrix hierarchydisplay 600, may help an end user build appropriate records for atelephone call routing matrix. The displays may automatically populatefields and potential fields and use a wizard-type navigation system tostreamline and simply the process for the end user to facilitate aninitial set up of, a periodic adjustment to, and/or a simulation of thebusiness logic and rules associated with the telephone call matrixrouting.

According to some embodiments, a user may simulate an incoming telephonecall. For example, FIG. 7 illustrates a telephone call simulationdisplay 700 according to some embodiments of the present invention. Thedisplay 700 includes a telephone call simulation data entry portion 702where a user may define a DNIS, an intent (e.g., the customer intends toask a billing question) along with various flags that might beassociated with a telephone call. These definitions may let a user testrules that are defined for a telephone call routing matrix. When thesimulation is executed, the service representative selection result forthe simulated telephone call may be displayed to the user. For example,FIG. 8 illustrates a simulation result display 800 according to someembodiments of the present invention. In particular, the display 800includes a result display 802 indicating which service representativewas selected along with information about the selection was made (e.g.,whether any override or matrix flags were matched).

A user may further define and manage flags associated with a telephonecall routing matrix. For example, FIG. 9 illustrates a flag managerdisplay 900 according to some embodiments of the present invention. Thedisplay 900 includes a flag manager data entry portion 902 displays aDNIS, intent, template, type, queue, and priority for active flags.Moreover, the user may add, update, or delete flags as appropriate viathe flag manager data entry portion 902. When a flag is active, it maybe displayed 904 for further configuration and/or replication.

Note that although a single header is displayed in the example of FIG.9, more than one header may be associated with a telephone call routingmatrix. For example, FIG. 10 illustrates a configuration display 1000according to some embodiments of the present invention. The display 1000includes header data 1002 for both “billing” and “other services”headers.

Note that headers may be defined on a DNIS-by-DNIS basis. According tosome embodiments, headers may instead be defined based on the intent ofthe call. For example, FIG. 11 illustrates a caller intent based display1100 according to some embodiments of the present invention. In thiscase, flag management 1102 may be provided for a selected intent of acaller (instead of the number he or she called). Note that in thisapproach, the DNIS (or phone number dialed by the customer) may beconsidered a flag to be considered when routing the telephone call.

The embodiments described herein may be implemented using any number ofdifferent hardware configurations. For example, FIG. 12 illustrates acommunications server 1200 that may be, for example, associated with thesystems 100, 200 of FIGS. 1 and 2. The communications server 1200comprises a processor 1210, such as one or more commercially availableCentral Processing Units (CPUs) in the form of one-chip microprocessors,coupled to a communication device 1220 configured to communicate via acommunication network (not shown in FIG. 12). The communication device1220 may be used to communicate, for example, with one or more customersand service representatives. The communications server 1200 furtherincludes an input device 1240 (e.g., a mouse and/or keyboard to definematrix algorithms) and an output device 1250 (e.g., a computer monitorto display reports and simulation results).

The processor 1210 also communicates with a storage device 1230. Thestorage device 1230 may comprise any appropriate information storagedevice, including combinations of magnetic storage devices (e.g., a harddisk drive), optical storage devices, mobile telephones, and/orsemiconductor memory devices. The storage device 1230 stores a program1212 and/or a communications engine 1214 (e.g., associated with acommunications engine plug-in) for controlling the processor 1210. Theprocessor 1210 performs instructions of the programs 1212, 1214, andthereby operates in accordance with any of the embodiments describedherein. For example, the processor 1210 may receive a telephone call ata communications server and attempt to match information about thetelephone call with at least one override flag to select a servicerepresentative terminal. If the information about the telephone calldoes not match the at least one override flag, the processor 1210 mayaccess a telephone call routing matrix stored on a relational databaseplatform to attempt to select a service representative terminal for thereceived telephone call. If a service representative terminal is notselected based on the telephone call routing matrix, the processor 1210may select a service representative terminal in accordance with adefault routing rule. The processor 1210 may then route the receivedtelephone to the selected service representative terminal.

The programs 1212, 1214 may be stored in a compressed, uncompiled and/orencrypted format. The programs 1212, 1214 may furthermore include otherprogram elements, such as an operating system, a database managementsystem, and/or device drivers used by the processor 1210 to interfacewith peripheral devices.

As used herein, information may be “received” by or “transmitted” to,for example: (i) the communications server 1200 from another device; or(ii) a software application or module within the communications server1200 from another software application, module, or any other source.

In some embodiments (such as shown in FIG. 12), the storage device 1230further stores a relational database routing matrix database 1300,insurance data 1260 (insurance policy details), and override flags anddefaults 1270. An example of a database that may be used in connectionwith the communications server 1200 will now be described in detail withrespect to FIG. 13. Note that the database described herein is only oneexample, and additional and/or different information may be storedtherein. Moreover, various databases might be split or combined inaccordance with any of the embodiments described herein. For example,the insurance data 1260 and/or override flags and defaults 1270 might becombined and/or linked to each other within the communications engine1214.

Referring to FIG. 13, a table is shown that represents the relationaldatabase routing matrix database 1300 that may be stored at thecommunications server 1200 according to some embodiments. The table mayinclude, for example, entries identifying business rules and algorithmsthat may define telephone call routing for an enterprise. The table mayalso define fields 1302, 1304, 1306, 1308, 1310 for each of the entries.The fields 1302, 1304, 1306, 1308, 1310 may, according to someembodiments, specify: a DNIS 1302, a flag 1304, a condition 1306, avalue 1308, and a CSR identifier 1310. The relational database routingmatrix database 1300 may be created and updated, for example, based oninformation received from an operator or administrator.

The DNIS 1302 may be, for example, a unique alphanumeric codeidentifying a particular telephone line. The flag 1304, condition 1306,and value 1308 may define an operation to be evaluated for the DNIS1302. The CSR identifier 1310 may indicate a result or selecting of thatevaluation. For example, when a customer dials “1-800-555-1001” he orshe may interact with an IVR platform and indicate a preferred language.The IVR platform may then store the customer's answer as a flagassociated with that telephone call. The relational database routingmatric database 1300 may be accessed and the flag 1304 (“Language”),condition 1306 (“Equals”), and value 1308 (“Spanish”) may be evaluated.If the evaluation is true, a CSR identifier 1310 of “CSR_(—)101”) isestablished and used to route the customer's telephone call. Note thatthe condition 1306 might implement any type of business rule or logic(e.g., greater than, less than, or within a pre-determined range ofvalue). Moreover, note that any type of data storage scheme might beassociated with a routing matrix, including RDBMS, Indexed SequentialAccess Method (“ISAM”), a series of flat files, and/or other types ofprogramming code.

Accordingly, some embodiments may define a work stream that provides ascalable model for telephone call control. The model may support anenterprise such that as new lines of business are brought onboard ordissolve into one other, the model may still provide appropriatetelephone call routing without custom programming. The model may alsosupport the indicators or “flags” attached to telephone calls in theIVR. The backend model may support a GUI that is scalable and dynamic.Quality enforcement may be provided by enforcing rules as part of theapplication (not user) process, by web service checks validate routepoints, by transparency in configuration, by simplification of inputs,and by Just-In-Time (“JIT”) updates and analysis. Additionally, thesystem may provide secondary checks based on returned values andconfigurations. These secondary checks may provide exception reportingwhen flags are not programmed, in error, yet are still being tagged totelephone call in by an IVR platform. Moreover, some embodimentsdescribed herein may bulk load changes. For example, a system associatedwith tens of thousands of records may need to be updated (e.g., toretire an end point). In this case, one or more incoming telephonenumbers may be associated with a need customer service representativequeue via a bulk load update.

FIG. 14 illustrates elements of a relational data model 1400 inaccordance with some embodiments described herein. The relational datamodel 1400 may depict data stored in tables and the relationshipsbetween the elements. According to some embodiments, elements may beassociated with DNIS information, queues, override flags, defaultrouting, priority values 1402, simulations, and/or individual flags1404. Note that the relational data model 1400 may help ensuresituational integrity for the system. According to some embodiments, anoperator may use a form to update multiple tables, and some of thecomplexity may be encapsulated in a process or view. The header andchild structure in the user interface may reduce complexity as itrelates to the intuitiveness and usability from an end user'sperspective. Moreover, the relational matrix leverages an RDBMS (SQLServer) at an enterprise level to facilitate configuration,administration, and business rules for call routing.

The following illustrates various additional embodiments of theinvention. These do not constitute a definition of all possibleembodiments, and those skilled in the art will understand that thepresent invention is applicable to many other embodiments. Further,although the following embodiments are briefly described for clarity,those skilled in the art will understand how to make any changes, ifnecessary, to the above-described apparatus and methods to accommodatethese and other embodiments and applications.

Although specific hardware and data configurations have been describedherein, note that any number of other configurations may be provided inaccordance with embodiments of the present invention (e.g., some of theinformation associated with the databases described herein may becombined or stored in external systems).

Applicants have discovered that embodiments described herein may beparticularly useful in connection with insurance policies associatedwith injuries occurring at a client's location or as a result ofclient's involvement. Note, however, that other types of insurancepolicies may also benefit from the invention. For example, embodimentsof the present invention may be used in connection with automobileinsurance policies, etc. Moreover, although some embodiments have beendescribed with respect to the routing of telephone calls, note that anyof the embodiments might instead be associated with other types ofincoming communications, such as email messages and/or postal mail.

Moreover, some embodiments have been described herein as being accessedvia a PC or laptop computer. Note, however, that embodiments may beimplemented using any device capable of executing the disclosedfunctions and steps. For example, FIG. 15 illustrates a display 1500 inaccordance with some embodiments described herein. In particular, thedisplay 1500 includes a graphical user interface including informationabout managing flags for a telephone call routing matrix.

In addition to simulating incoming telephone calls, some embodiments mayre-evaluate historic calls to determine if they are ultimately routedproperly. For example, historic calls can be re-evaluated after changesare made to the model, in a quality assurance environment, to determineif changed settings meet business routing expectations and result indecreased testing and shortened release schedules.

The present invention has been described in terms of several embodimentssolely for the purpose of illustration. Persons skilled in the art willrecognize from this description that the invention is not limited to theembodiments described, but may be practiced with modifications andalterations limited only by the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed:
 1. A system including for routing communications to aselected platform, comprising: a plurality of service representativeplatforms; a relational database platform storing a communicationrouting matrix; and a communications server, including: a communicationdevice to receive a communication associated with an insurance claim, aprocessor coupled to the communication device and the relationaldatabase platform, and a storage device in communication with saidprocessor and storing instructions adapted to be executed by saidprocessor to: automatically determine an insured party and an associatedidentifier for with the received communication, attempt to matchinformation about the communication with at least one override flag toselect one of the service representative platforms, if the informationabout the communication does not match the at least one override flag,access the routing matrix to attempt to select one of the servicerepresentative platforms for the received communication based oninformation in the routing matrix and the insured party, if a servicerepresentative platform is not selected based on the routing matrix,select one of the service representative platforms in accordance with adefault routing rule, and route the received communication to theselected service representative platform.
 2. The system of claim 1,wherein the received communication comprises a telephone call or anemail message.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the identifiercomprises a document identifier or an insurance policy identifier. 4.The system of claim 1, the storage device further storing instructionsadapted to be executed by said processor to: transmit an indication of aqueue priority value for the received communication based on at leastone of: (i) an override flag, (ii) the routing matrix, and (iii) adefault queue priority value.
 5. The system of claim 1, the storagedevice further storing instructions adapted to be executed by saidprocessor to: determine supplemental information about a customerassociated with the received communication, wherein said selection isfurther based on the supplemental information.
 6. The system of claim 5,wherein the supplemental information is determined via at least one of:(i) an interactive voice recognition system, (ii) a customer response,and (iii) pre-stored customer information.
 7. The system of claim 1,wherein the selection of the selected service representative platform isbased at least in part on: (i) dialed number information service data,(ii) a business rule, (iii) product information, (iv) a languagepreference, (v) queue information, or (vi) a service representativeskill.
 8. The system of claim 1, the storage device further storinginstructions adapted to be executed by said processor to: simulate, byan administrator, receipt of a simulated communication, wherein aservice representative platform is selected for the simulatedcommunication.
 9. The communications server of claim 1, the storagedevice further storing instructions adapted to be executed by saidprocessor to: interact with an end-user via a graphical user interfaceto adjust the routing matrix stored on the relational database platform.10. A computer-implemented method associated with insurance claimhandling, comprising: receiving a communication associated with aninsurance claim; automatically determining, by a communications servercomputer processor, an insured party and an associated identifier forwith the received communication; attempting, by the communicationsserver computer processor, to match information about the communicationwith at least one override flag to select one of a plurality of servicerepresentative platforms; if the information about the communicationdoes not match the at least one override flag, accessing, by thecommunications server computer processor, a communication routingmatrix, stored at a relational database platform, to attempt to selectone of the service representative platforms for the receivedcommunication based on information in the routing matrix, the insuredparty, and the identifier; if a service representative terminal is notselected based on the routing matrix, selecting, by the communicationsserver computer processor, one of the service representative platformsin accordance with a default routing rule; and transmitting dataassociated with the received communication to the selected servicerepresentative platform.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein thereceived communication comprises a telephone call or an email message.12. The method of claim 10, wherein the identifier comprises a documentidentifier or an insurance policy identifier.
 13. The method of claim10, further comprising: transmitting, by the communications servercomputer processor, an indication of a queue priority value for thereceived communication based on at least one of: (i) an override flag,(ii) the routing matrix, and (iii) a default queue priority value. 14.The method of claim 10, further comprising: determining, by thecommunications server computer processor, supplemental information abouta customer associated with the received communication, wherein saidselection is further based on the supplemental information.
 15. Themethod of claim 14, wherein the supplemental information is determinedvia at least one of: (i) an interactive voice recognition system, (ii) acustomer response, and (iii) pre-stored customer information.
 16. Themethod of claim 10, wherein the selection of the selected servicerepresentative platform is based at least in part on: (i) dialed numberinformation service data, (ii) a business rule, (iii) productinformation, (iv) a language preference, (v) queue information, or (vi)a service representative skill.
 17. A system including for routingcommunications to a selected platform, comprising: a plurality ofservice representative platforms; a relational database platform storinga communication routing matrix; and a communications server, including:a communication device to receive a telephone call associated with aninsurance claim, the telephone call having associated dialed numberinformation service data, a processor coupled to the communicationdevice and the relational database platform, and a storage device incommunication with said processor and storing instructions adapted to beexecuted by said processor to: automatically determine an insured partyand an associated insurance policy identifier for with the receivedtelephone call, attempt to match information about the telephone callwith at least one override flag to select one of the servicerepresentative platforms, if the information about the telephone calldoes not match the at least one override flag, access the routing matrixto attempt to select one of the service representative platforms for thetelephone call based on information in the routing matrix and the dialednumber information service data, if a service representative platform isnot selected based on the routing matrix, select one of the servicerepresentative platforms in accordance with a default routing rule, androute the received telephone call to the selected service representativeplatform along with an indication of the insurance policy identifier.18. The system of claim 17, wherein an indication of a queue priorityvalue for the received telephone call is transmitted based on at leastone of: (i) an override flag, (ii) the routing matrix, and (iii) adefault queue priority value.
 19. The system of claim 17, wherein theselection of the selected service representative platform is furtherbased at least in part on: (i) a business rule, (ii) productinformation, (iii) a language preference, (iv) queue information, or (v)a service representative skill.